Paul Waring & Martin Townsend
Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland
2nd edition; Bloomsbury; 2009
This is a magnificent tome, but not what I would define as a “field guide”: for an octavo paperback of almost 450 pages, on glossy paper and weighing almost 900 gm you would need a poacher’s pocket or a JCB to carry it around. It is a reference book — and a brilliant one at that — but as such it is not something to be read from cover to cover but explored when needed. It is an essential on the shelves of anyone with an interest in the huge diversity of the insect world, especially, obviously, moths.
Having said that, it doesn’t cover all moths but just the “macro-moths” (essentially anything with a forewing length over about 1 cm); micro-moths are covered elsewhere.
I’ve long wanted such a book (why didn’t I get this before?) as there was for many, many years a huge hole in the field guide coverage of British moths; I remember my mother complaining at least 40 years ago that there was no good, available, guide to moths — how she would have loved this book!
The book does what it sets out to do: describe for the naturalist (both professional and amateur) every known species of moth in the British Isles. The descriptions are organised by genus, with each species getting an entry of a third to half a page in quite small type. The descriptions cover mostly the adult moth, its habitat, lifecycle and distribution.
Strangely all the illustrations of adult moths occupy the central 20% of the book. This is not obvious from the colour-coding of the pages and I’ve found the only way to know quickly where the illustrations start is with a bookmark. Having said that, the illustrations (by Richard Lewington) are magnificent — much the best I’ve encountered — and they show the wonderful diversity and beauty of these important but much disliked insects. Moreover the illustrations show the adult moths in their normal sitting pose, unlike many guides which show the wings displayed as they would be in a museum case (something that’s not helpful to the non-specialist).
There is, however, one significant thing I don’t like about this book. In general it does not illustrate the larvae (caterpillars) of each species. Some (maybe 15%) of species have a photograph of the caterpillar along with the description (not with the illustrations). This I find curious. I know that many caterpillars look very similar (even more than adult moths) but why not illustrate them and have a complete section of the illustrations — separate from the adult moths would be OK — as an aid to identification. For me, this stops the book getting a top 5-star rating.
My only other gripe is the cost; at around £30 for the paperback this is beyond the reach of many.
Nevertheless this is a reference book which will live on the shelf over my desk and quite likely become well used.
Overall Rating: ★★★★☆
Category Archives: natural history
Moths
Let’s catch up on a couple of recent (like this week) photographs. Specifically we’ve had two common, but quite interesting, moths in the house in the last few days. First of all we had this …
Angle Shades, Phlogophora meticulosa
I struggled to identify it as the illustration in my book looks nothing like this, but then they are very variable. Angle Shades are actually very common, and one often sees thier grey (or green; again they are quite variable) caterpillars around.
[By the way the gradations in the photos are 5mm squares.]
Then last evening I had this one flutter in the window and sit on my desk …
Straw Underwing, Thalpophila matura
This is (at least to me) much more interesting as I’ve not knowingly seen one before — but then with its wings folded it is just another dark coloured moth, so I probably have seen them and just not realised. Again it is quite common on rough grassland, of which we have plenty near here.
I know most people don’t like moths fluttering about, an they can be irritating, but many are actually rather spectacular when looked at closely. Oh and I think both of these were females.
Nationally Scarce
Now this is something I never expected o see here in West London! Noreen found it on the (inside of) the study windows late last evening. It’s a (female) Jersey Tiger Moth.
I’ve only ever seen one once before, in Lyme Regis some 10 or more years ago. They are apparently “nationally scarce”. Once restricted to, yes, Jersey, they are most common along the coastal areas of the South West, although they are obviously spreading and there are now reports from the London area. Instantly identifiable as a Tiger Moth, the size (that’s a 5mm grid), pattern and the distinctively striped head are diagnostic. Oh and they like Buddleia, and we have a bush not far from our back door.
Sorry not brilliant pictures as this was lively, so contained in a plastic bug-catcher, being photographed with my point-n-shoot late at night with flash. I have removed the slight colour-cast from the images, I hope without destroying the moth’s colours.
Click the images for larger views on Flickr
[More info on the moths here and here.]
Also found this morning on our bathroom ceiling was this gorgeous little Oak Bush Cricket. The body is about 17 mm long and note those spectacular antennae which are three or four times the length of the body.These are not scarce; we often get them in the house at this time of year — one of the benefits of having trees in the garden (including an oak) and being close to woodland. They’re very forgiving creatures and will happily sit still to be photographed, unlike captured moths.
Oddity of the Week: Seagull Orange
A bright orange Herring Gull was rescued from a vat of waste chicken tikka masala at a food factory last week.
Staff at the nearby wildlife hospital used washing-up liquid to remove the bright orange from the gull’s feathers, returning him to his original white & grey colour. However he still smells of curry — apparently the gull smelt amazing!
Oddity of the Week: Porn for Whales
If we are to believe the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (10 February 2016) the online pornography colossus Pornhub ran a three week charity fundraising promotion, starting on 8 February, to mark World Whale Day on 13 February. The proceeds went to Moclips Cetological Society (“Save the Whales”).
Pornhub’s press release apparently celebrated whales’ sexuality as they — like humans and bonobos — do not limit their horniness to procreation.
The company said that over the three week period it would donate 1 cent to the charity for every 2000 videos played on its ubiquitous free websites. Now that might sound extremely mean, but the Seattle Post-Intelligencer noted that in just the first two days the world’s porn consumers had played 532 million videos thus earning the charity $2,660.
Weekly Photograph
Sorry, we’ve not had a photograph for a couple of weeks; there’s just been too much going on and I’ve not been doing any photography.
Over Easter weekend I’ve seen a Jackdaw in our garden on two occasions. We’ve been here nearly 35 years and this is a first for our suburban west London garden, although I have once in a while seen the odd jackdaw around. Whether they are just passing through, or whether there is a colony establishing somewhere near-ish, I have no idea; although as an area we don’t have any significant number of jackdaw-friendly buildings/chimneys for nesting. These aren’t brilliant photos — they’re grab shots taken with my point-and-shoot through the study window — but (at least for me) they are an interesting record.
This chappie flew off with his contraband, hotly pursued by the local crows.
Click the images for larger views on Flickr
Oddity of the Week: Wombat Shit
The wombat is a large, solitary and nocturnal relative of the koala, native to Australia. It has poor eyesight but an excellent sense of smell, which is its main navigation aid.
It also has a very strange ability under its belt: its shit comes out in cubes. Yep, unlike other animals which produce cylinders (eg. dogs), pleets (eg. rabbits) or splats (eg. cows) the wombat’s turds really are cube-shaped.
Why? Well it seems it is all down to the physiology and motility of their large intestines. But it turns out it is also a useful attribute to have.
Find the full story over on The Conversation.
Weekly Photograph
This week, something different in the way of photographic subject …
This is a fly. Actually it was quite a chunky fly and I’m reliably informed it is a common flesh fly (Sarcophaga carnaria). It’s called a flesh fly because it feeds on carrion and other similar undesirables.
When you look at insects, like this, they are amazingly complex anatomically — just look at the feet, the hairs, and the veins in the wings of this beastie. And they are also often surprisingly beautiful. This chappie was quite large, 10-15mm.
Large Chequered Fly
Norwich; August 2008
Click the image for larger views on Flickr
Oddity of the Week: Wildlife Comedy
The winners of the first annual Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards have been announced.
And the winner was this wonderful image entitled “Rush Hour”.
Click the image for a larger view
You can find many more gorgeous and hilarious images over at http://comedywildlifephoto.com/gallery/.
Enjoy!
Your Interesting Links
So here we are then with another round of links to items you may have missed the first time round.
Science & Medicine
It seems that humans are not the only animals who have personal names, but we are probably the only ones who gossip.
Its well known that dogs will eat anything, but why are cats such fussy eaters?
The more we look at them, the smarter crows turn out to be. But are they smart enough to fall in love?
Talking of being smart, it appears that those of us who sleep late are smarter and more creative.
But then you die. Here’s what happens to your body after death.
Meanwhile it seems health experts are explaining drug-resistant bacteria so poorly that people aren’t believing them.
Sexuality
Just beware the rodeo! The sexual positions most likely to cause penis fractures.
But avoid that and researchers have worked out that the happiest people have sex just once a week — and it’s good.
This article on sex for the elderly shows just how tricky it is to maintain the well-being of people in care.
Environment
George Monbiot in the Guardian tells us there’s a population crisis, but it isn’t the one we usually think of.
Meanwhile one way round the population crisis would be to make humans smaller.
You’ve probably heard of guerilla gardening, well now here’s guerilla grafting — activists are grafting fruit-bearing branches onto ornamental city trees. Excellent idea!
Social Sciences & Business
The class system is dead; long live the class system. Apparently the UK is still class ridden, but in today’s society the classes are different.
Why the internet is like a series of lead pipes. Very interesting comparison.
From pipes to streets. Clever cartographers add fictitious trap streets to their maps. Here are some trap streets in London.
Art & Literature
[NSFW] A Japanese museum is aiming to confront the taboo of shunga head on. Is it art, is it pornography, or could it be both?
The British Library is celebrating the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland with a new exhibition. IanVisits takes a look.
History
In another new exhibition the Wellcome Collection is featuring Lukhang Temple in Lhasa, Tibet’s Secret Temple. IanVisits again takes a look.
Returning home again, did you know that, once upon a time London was the motor manufacturing centre of the UK?
People
Nothing highly salacious to leave you with this time, so here’s the obituary for Roy Dommett (with accordion, above), a true British eccentric. The video is just excellent! [With thanks to Bruce for alerting me to this.]